Your ideas are hugely valuable.

--S.B., Orinda, CA, novelist

“The endeavor of writing can be long and lonely. Mary Carroll Moore, master writing instructor, to the rescue! Moore packs How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book with years of gritty good sense and big-picture perspective. Her techniques for drafting, organizing, and polishing a book are practical and time-tested. Here is a first-time book-writer’s best companion.”

--Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew,author of Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir

If I could implement all I've learned from you, I'd have a best-seller!

Pretend you’re a reporter for the New York Times. You’re going to interview your book idea.

List some questions you’d love to ask your book about its form, content, goals. You can start with something nonthreatening, as you would if you were a real reporter.

Ask your book some very good questions. Some ideas from my class are below, or you can make up your own:

What do you want to tell me about yourself?What form suits you best?Who is your readership and how will theyaccess you?What are you most eager to say?What are you most afraid to say?What genre are you?

When it runs out of things to say (or you getnervous about the answers) ask a different question.

The goal of this book-writing exercise is to surprise yourself. You’ll tap the hidden parts of yourself as a writer, the parts we often censor. You can strike gold--if you maintain the attitude of no-assumptions and anything can happen.

Books for the Blocked--These'll Get You Moving Again!

Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg

Listen to Me by Lynn Lauber

Marry Your Muse by Jan Phillips

Pencil Dancing by Mari Messer

The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo

Thinking about Memoir by Abigail Thomas

Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan

A person’s life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art, or love, or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.Albert Camus

Friday, July 26, 2013

First comes the
wild idea. It grows gradually in your creative self, until it feels
like an elephant in the corner of a room, not letting you ignore it.
Until you're compelled to get it on paper.

You write for months
or years. You now have a huge file on your hard drive or piled on your
desk. You rework it, get feedback, rework some more. Hate it, love it,
feel neutral.

Finally, you're ready for revision. Revision is
essential; we know that professionals spend most of their book journey
on this final stage. But if it's our first book, how do we figure out
what needs attention? It reads OK, our writers' group loves it. But we
still sense the book isn't ready to go out to agent or editor.

Without a plan, a map, revision can feel endless.Checklist to Revision Sanity"I'm
having a hell of a time editing an old book," Annette, a reader from
New York, wrote me this week. "I know it needs container (setting)
details and sensory details but I seem to get bogged down.

"Sometimes,
I find myself just rewriting what I had from an old manuscript, trying
to sound like another (famous, rich, bestselling) writer, or making
notes on the old manuscript and retyping that. I seem to lack a focused technique for editing.

"I tried the exercise in Your Book Starts Here
on expanding and contracting the main nugget of a paragraph. Both seem
easy enough, as I already know what the nugget is, and what the visuals
are.

"I guess I'm not sure: how much is too much, how to add, and
how to work the process of editing. Paper? Computer? Just fill in
holes, lop out excess? Which first? How do you know what's chaff and what's seed?"

How the Pros Edit I
trained as an editor for eighteen years. Both as a freelancer for
various publishers and a salaried manuscript editor for a small press in
the Midwest, I worked with experienced pros who were steady, careful,
and kind enough to instruct me.

I learned there are indeed clear
steps to take when polishing a manuscript. It's not a blind ride. Each
editor has their own method, but many overlapped.

From my
eighteen years, a checklist evolved. I'll share some of the basic
guidelines with you. They've served me well in my own editing.

Step One: Find a Workable Editing MethodDecide first if you're more comfortable editing by paper or on screen. It's really a matter of personal preference.

Many
editors vow that it's impossible to catch all mistakes via a vibrating
computer screen. My boss always printed out a "hard copy" and went
through it with editing pen.

I adopted that method. I know my
limits onscreen; I miss repeated words, typos (despite spell check), and
clunky sentences. So I always print a hard copy after content and
structure are in place.

Before that, I'm just wasting paper.

Content
is what happens--is there enough? Are the stakes high? Structure is
the flow--have I arranged events or information in a strong flow? Basic
architectural questions that need to be solved before revision editing.

Step Two: Get Software That Assists You Last year, I switched to Scrivener. There are many writing/editing software options but Scrivener is my favorite.

It
lets me create my manuscript in a "binder" which is easy to arrange,
rearrange, and edit from. I build "islands," or scenes, first. Then in
first draft assembly, I create chapters. I edit them individually
first, then as a whole.

For instance, part of my revision process
is to create chapter transitions that keep readers from setting down
the book after a chapter ends. I want a page-turner. Scrivener and
Word both allow split screen viewing. I open consecutive chapters,
study the end of one and the beginning of the next, to check chapter
transitions.

When I've done all I can, I import the entire
manuscript back into a Word doc and send it to myself via email. I open
it on Pages on my iPad or on an e-reader. The goal is to get a
document that looks like it will in printed book form.

I read
it carefully, making more notes. This step-by-step method is
invaluable. I always find more to correct. Back to Scrivener for the
final tweaks.

1. Scour out the verb "to be," a blah choice that creeps in to writing as placeholder. I search for "was" and all uses of the verb "to be" and use my thesaurus to get creative.

2.
Remove "had" as much as possible. "Had" is past perfect and is really
only needed in the first instance of a flashback. Then most pros slide
into simple past tense. For instance: "She had been a chef years ago.
She landed a good job at Circus Maximus." Notice that the "had" places
us in the backstory, but after we are there, we can move to simple
past, with "landed."

3. Eliminate "ing" verbs. Gerunds are
useful but slow down the pace. Compare: "He wired the alarm" with "He
was wiring the alarm"--fast, punchy versus languid. Occasionally,
languid verb forms draw out tension, but if you search, you'll be
astonished how often you've unconsciously used them.

4.
Replace "walk" and "move" with more vivid actions. "They moved across
the field" versus "They sped across the field." Quite a difference.

5.
Ruthlessly wipe out adverbs. Cheating, I call it. We opt for "ly"
descriptors instead of punching up our dialogue and actions. Adverbs
slow down the pace. Can you get rid of most of them?

Step Four: Continuity CheckEditors make sure the details are consistent in a manuscript. Here are the three biggest offenders:

1.
Verify the movement of weather and time of day, chapter to chapter.
Make sure these are consistent and evolve logically. We can't go from
midnight to midday without notice. I make a chart and double-check it
against my chapters.

2. List all major items in your
story--vehicles, physical details, room locations, possessions--anything
that appears frequently. Use the checklist to search for each. Verify
that you've used the same descriptions. A man with flaming red hair in
chapter 1 who is suddenly bald in chapter 10 needs explanation.

3.
List all names--place and people. Check for consistency. One of my
mom's pet peeves (she's a voracious reader) is the author who changes a
main character's name from Elise to Elaine mid-book.

Step Five: If It Still Doesn't Sing . . . Checklists for ContentIf
you still find yourself swimming in unease after these changes, you may
need to go back to your content and upgrade it. Here are five small
questions I ask myself, to bring content to another level:

1.
Does each person in the story show inconsistencies? Humans do. We're
generous and stingy. We're sweet and snarly. If your players aren't
two sides of their own coin, stop protecting them. Show everything.

2.
Are the places and peoples unique enough? I make lists of how each
person differs from the others, then do the same with each location.
Push this as much as you can.

3. Are there enough fights? Do they range in intensity? If not, add some. Conflict makes prose move.

4. Are there enough secrets? Do you reveal them too soon? Can you delay more, to build tension?

5. Does each chapter have a clear and definite purpose? If not, can you change it? Or eliminate it?

For
even more tips, check out my Revision Checklist post from last year.
It got re-blogged more than any other in 2012, which says it hit home
with many readers. Click here to see why.

This Week's Writing ExercisePick
one of the revision tasks above. Try it out this week on a chapter or
your entire manuscript. See how it works for you. Then try another, if
you wish.

Slow and steady--most editors I admire have these
qualities. It's something we writers may not come to naturally, but the
revision process will certainly teach us better!

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Upcoming Writing Classes with Mary

One-Day WorkshopsWriting Your Life: How to Plan, Write, and Develop Your MemoirOne-day workshop, Saturday, July 22, Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis. Whether you're writing for publication or family legacy, bring your memoir ideas to play with structure, theme, and focus in this hands-on workshop. Learn about pivot points, various ways memoirs are structured today, and how to get a reader's perspective on your life story. $105. Click here for details or to register.

Fall Online ClassesStrange Alchemy: How Place, People, and Situation Intersect in Your StoryEight-week class, starts October 25, sponsored by Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis. Weekly writing exercises, discussion, readings from well-known fiction and memoir writers, and workshopping your writing for intensive feedback lets you explore the balance of tension and action, how the narrative arc (the growth or change in your character or narrator) interacts with this conflict, and how "container"—the primary atmosphere in your story—can drive emotion in your story.$390. Click here for details or to register.

Your Book Starts Here: Learn to Storyboard Your Book!Eight-week class, starts October 25, sponsored by Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis. Learn a simple template that many professional writers use to build a strong structure of a novel, memoir, or nonfiction book via storyboard brainstorming. Great for all stages, from writers just starting a book project to those with a work-in-progress. $390. Click here for details or to register.

Your Book Starts Here: part 3Eight-week class, starts October 25, sponsored by Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis. For writers at revision, with a complete manuscript draft. Small group workshopping for intensive feedback each week.$390. Click here for details or to register.

Writing RetreatsYour Book Starts Here: Week-long Writing RetreatJuly 24-28 (SOLD OUT) or October 16-20, Madeline Island School of the Arts, Madeline Island (Lake Superior)Five days of workshop, personal coaching, and plenty of time to work on your book in our great community of book writers at all stages, working in all genres, at the gorgeous Madeline Island art school. This retreat will become a highlight of your summer or fall. Lodging available in clean, cozy cottages at the arts school campus. $625. Click here for details (summer retreat) or here (fall retreat).

Independent study available for either week.

A Little about Me . . .

Mary Carroll Moore is an award-winning, internationally published author of thirteen books in three genres, writing teacher, editor and book doctor for publishing houses. For thirty years she's helped thousands of new and experienced writers plan, write, and develop--and publish!--their books. Photo by Bruce Fuller Photography.

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If you believe you have a book inside you just waiting to come out, here is a guide that will ensure your book’s arrival in the world. In clear, accessible prose, Mary Carroll Moore leads the aspiring author through every step of the challenging, rewarding process of developing and completing a full-length book.

--Rebecca McClanahan, author of Word Painting

Encouraging Words--Well-Known Writers with Large Number of Rejections--But Published!

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo--397 rejections (and it became a movie)A Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L'Engle--97 rejections (and it won the Newbery Medal for best children's book of 1963; it's now in its 69th printing)Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson--40 rejections (and it has won multiple awards and sold 150,000 hard copies). Judy Blume says she received "nothing but rejections" for 2 years.Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot--17 rejectionsHarry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling--rejected by 9 publishersThe Diary of Anne Frank--16 rejections (and now more than 30 million copies are in print)Dr. Seuss books--more than 15 rejectionsJonathan Livingston Seagullby Richard Bach--140 rejectionsGone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell--38 rejectionsWatership Down by Richard Adams--26 rejectionsDune by Frank Herbert--nearly 20 rejections

To all book writers: Believe in your story. Keep trying. The right home for your book is out there, waiting for you to discover it.

Want to get the creative brain going?

Book writers (and any writers) need to know how to engage the creative right brain that "writes" in images. Think of any wonderful book that's left you swimming in a setting or characters--the writer has successfully used the image-creating part of the brain. But our normal workaday lives short-circuit this part. Check out this cool video of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist at Harvard Medical School, recounting her personal experience of a left-brain stroke and her awakening to right-brain reality. Pretty amazing fusion of brain science with what it feels like to a brain scientist having a stroke:http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

Flying Squirrels Bring Creative Jolt to Novelist

Flying squirrel gets into house--disrupts routine, gets novelist thinking differently. This happened to me! For two days, as I chased the squirrel (actually, it was all night since they are nocturnal), I slept very little. And got many new ideas for my novel-in-progress.Go figure!Maybe...book writers need creative jolts? Routine dulls our imaginations? How has an unexpected interruption actually been a gift for your creativity this week?

At the Loft Literary Center, I can always tell which students in my classes have taken Mary Carroll Moore’s class on book-writing. They talk about writing their book in "islands" and using storyboards to figure out how those sections relate to each other. When another student confesses to feeling overwhelmed by the material her memoir might include, they readily advise, “You should try Mary Carroll Moore’s method.” I second that.--Cheri Register, author of Packinghouse Daughter and American Book Award winner

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